For someone who spent the formative years of his youth reading maps in the Scouts, I have an unnerving ability to get lost. But so far – and this is especially inscrutable for a gadget freak – I have resisted the lure of satellite navigation. I just didn’t want to have to manage *yet another device* when a map and my innate sense of direction seemed generally adequate.

But a combination of my iPhone, an affordable satnav app called CoPilot Live, and a demand from the Significant Other to end unintended diversions – and I have an opportunity to see what this GPS driving business is all about.

So having ditched the maps for CoPilot Live, did my iPhone get me from A to B?

I was kindly given a copy of CoPilot Live v8 for the UK and Ireland, from ALK Technologies. It’s currently available on the App Store for £26.99.

FIRST USE

The first thing the app asks you to do is crate a CoPilot Live ID. I haven’t used this since and I’ve no idea what happened to the log in information, apart from an email to confirm. Apparently it’s for CoPilot Live services.

Using the iPhone as a satnav, I noticed that there’s no decent way to use it without a car mount; this is a problem that TomTom have sought to solve with their hideously expensive iPhone car kit. I first bought a Griffin Windowseat, a dedicated iPhone mount that claimed to stick on to the dashboard. But it kept falling over, so now I’m using a generic mount that clips to an air vent. The viewing angle’s not perfect, and it’s in portrait mode, but it’ll do.

Once the setup within the app is done, it’s on to getting some directions. The app launches ALK’s map and attempts to find your position via the iPhone’s GPS. It’s supposed to take up to 5 minutes, but every time I’ve used it, it has locked on within a couple of minutes at most. Sometimes that isn’t quick enough when I just need to drive off, so I’ve found myself making sure I launch the app as soon as I’m outside the house.

There’s an option to show a route overview, which I found good, but there’s a lot of panning and zooming to figure out exactly what that route is. If you have the time, there’s a demo mode, driving the route for you in advance. Thankfully you can fast forward this

You can also use CoPilot to provide walking directions, but I haven’t tried that. At the moment I’m still wedded to Google Maps and figuring it out myself.

SO HOW DID COPILOT FARE?

Route 1: It felt like I was being led round the houses a bit. I had the occasional “You’re going in the wrong direction”, while I’d been driving down a straight road for miles. But I ignored the app’s protestations, and ploughed on through. It got us there.

Route 2: This is perhaps the trickiest for the satnav, because I have plenty of personal experience to compare it against. But CoPilot came out pretty well. It didn’t pick the route I know is most reliable, but reliability is not the same as a program choosing what it understands to the quickest or shortest route. But it did fairly well, getting us there within a few minutes of the time I would expect.

Route 3: This is a straightforward drive until the end, when we hit the long A454 from the motorway into Wolverhampton, at 4.30 on a Friday night. The ETA from CoPilot was incredibly optimistic, given that it’s a shocking road at the best of times. But that’s where Live Traffic would be very useful. I must mention the ClearLane view, which gives excellent guidance about which lane to take on major roads and motorways

ClearLane view on the M40

One thing that made me wonder to begin with: If I missed a turn, the app wouldn’t say “You’ve missed a turn”, it would just silently re-route me. That was a bit freaky, as it seemed, no matter which way I went, I was always going in the right direction. At least I could say “I’m not going the wrong way” to my wife!

UPDATES TO THE APP

Since I started using CoPilot, it has received a few updates (the app will check for new versions when it starts, if you choose). I was given CoPilot at Version 8, and it’s now at Version 8.0.0.512; the versioning is consistent with their apps for other platforms.

One of the most important changes, in terms of the app’s usability, is the addition of a native iPhone keyboard. It was originally launched with an ABCDE keyboard layout, which I found to be a real pain when I used the app – having to mentally shift from the usual keyboard layout. It’s good that ALK has responded to user feedback, and the inclusion of the standard iPhone keyboard means I’ve become quicker using the app.

They’ve also added the ability to control the iPod app from within CoPilot. It’s not quite the same iPod interface, as you have a playlist internal to CoPilot that you add tracks to. But it does the job, and you can always double-click to get the built-in iPod controls.

And importantly, if you receive a phone call, it will return to the app afterwards and start navigation from the point at which you left it. In lieu of application mutii-tasking, that’s as good as it will get.

WHAT’S GOOD? WHAT’S BAD?

Well it always got me there, for starters. For someone who’s prone to inadvertent long detours, this was worth in it itself!

I really like the InfoBar at the bottom of the screen, with distance and ETA shown. You can customise this by tapping on it. Simple but informative, telling me how long my journey will last.

I had to switch CoPilot to always be oriented North with a 2D view, otherwise I found the constant turning of the map to be off-putting.

CoPilot Live, shown in landscape

You can determine certain preferences (routing type, etc.) by setting a Profile. However, when you start the app the next time, there’s no reminder of which Profile is set. This meant I was taken a very strange route one day, when I’d forgotten to switch from my “Strongly favour motorways” profile.

You can save and load saved routes, but I found the interface a bit clunky for doing so. I’d love to be able to use desktop software to choose and optimise the route, which is much easier on a large screen, then save those routes to the app. But there’s no import/export with CoPilot Central 2.0 (ALK’s desktop software) – it’s not compatible with the iPhone.

There are also no extra guidance voices to buy. Perhaps this could be added as an in-app purchase? I’ll be geekily honest here – I want Patrick Stewart giving me directions. ALK – Make It So.

OVERALL

It may be a bit *too* complicated. I’ve listed all the options available at the bottom of this article. The app seems incredibly well-featured, but a little complex for me. CoPilot Live almost feels like a device within a device, and I think I’ve barely used half its capabilities. There’s scope for a “Simple Mode” here I think. Just get me from A to B, as quickly as possible.

I’d say the biggest problem – and this isn’t a failure of CoPilot Live for iPhone – is that you’re tempted to fiddle with the satnav while driving. You can’t really use all this functionality and keep your full attention on the road. If you set things up correctly when you go and don’t run into any traffic, then it’s fine. But it helps to have a co-pilot to get the most out of CoPilot.

One thing ALK could do is bundle in a free month of Live Traffic, as Nokia do with some of their phones. Let people see what they are missing out on, and give them a comprehensive satnav experience to begin with. If I’d been given this option, I’d probably have ponied up the £20 annual for live services pretty easily.

I haven’t used any competing satnav apps or dedicated devices, so I’ve no real idea how CoPilot Live for iPhone stacks up against the competition. But I’m really pleased overall with the way it has performed. I haven’t bought the Live Traffic service yet – which is £20 a year – but I know I will at some point.

Nice review Matt – I’d be curious to hear how it compares to the TomTom app.

I’ve used a ‘TomTom One’ Sat-Nav for several years and CoPilot sounds roughly similar in terms of functionality. Does it allow you to add your own POI’s? (e.g. Speed Cameras) – I assume not but you never know.

Incidentally, I made my own mount for the TT1 which clipped into the air vent. I used bulldog clips, small nuts and bolts and a few rubber washers from B&Q – cost about a tenner. Perhaps someone should make one (I mean a cheap one) for the iPhone?

Bob

Getting you A to B is no magic. The real magic virtually anywhere in Britain is keeping you out of traffic and roadworks i.e. just getting me there as quick as possible. I have Copilot also but recently purchased Traffic Master for about the same price. It doesn’t have the bells and whistles of Copilot, but does come with lifetime traffic for no subscription (and a good installed base to work off which Copilot’s traffic cannot replicate). Reality is that Traffic Master is the one I now select everytime. A lot of the fancy stuff in Copilot (and Tom Tom) look interesting but aren’t really that valueable or even necessary.

http://twitter.com/dergal Gerry

petrol prices is awesome – but I am not sold on the app itself, I can’t help compare it to a VERY old version of TomTom on a symbian phone (6630) which seems to beat that on even on a N80 … And it seems to lose

I also have the problem that my car doesn’t seem to want to charge my phone which means that it dies pretty damn quick anyhow!

Nick Thorley

I have used the copilot for a month now and generally very impressed. One annoying “feature” is that it doesnt track you when you are moving below 5mph (that is what they say) but I think its more like < 10mph – anyway this means that in traffic you can travel a long distance and go past turnings that you wont be told to take as according to the device you are not moving.

With regard to the iphone car mount – I would highly recommend the
Duragadget car mount from amazon – I have a hard backed case on my iphone and hence alot of the car mounts need this to be removed which would be a pain. The Duragadget has adjustable grippers and also rotates to allow horizontal use and comes with sticky pad, air vent mount and also a windoscreen sucker – excellent mount for £6

http://theiphonelog.com Carl – TheiPhoneLog.com

Nice review there. Enjoyed reading it. I wanted to share the article but couldn’t find any tools on your website, maybe you should add some?

http://www.allaboutiphone.net Matt Radford

Hmm, it seems the Tweetmeme button (which appears on every article) has disappeared. I’ll restore it later. Cheers.

http://www.allaboutiphone.net Matt Radford

Andy – It doesn’t allow you to add your own POIs, but speed camera locations are built-in. I should have mentioned that function – the warnings are handy. Perhaps you’d like to do a tutorial on building your own iPhone mount? 😉

Bob – Is it a Traffic Master iPhone app or a standalone device? I’ve tried to find an app but no joy…

Nick – I’ve also found that there can be a bit of lag, and that sometimes you make the turn before the announcement, but only when I’ve been travelling quite slowly for a while. Otherwise, it’s fine. Thanks also for the tip on the iPhone mount – I’ll check it out.

And Carl – the Tweetmeme button to post articled to Twitter is now fixed. Thanks again for the heads up

Andy Cook

Interesting to hear it has Speed Cameras built in. They do change regularly though (new ones added, some removed and various temporary ones up during roadworks etc) so it would be good if they were/could be updated regularly.

I considered making an iPhone/Touch mount but it seems redundant now following Nick’s tip on the Duragadget mount (thanks Nick) which, even with the postage added to the cost, probably works out cheaper than my DIY job. Maybe one will be needed for the iPad – obviously, I’d need a sample to test with

Bob

Andy, it’s called “trafficmaster companion” for the iPhone available in the app store.

http://www.allaboutiphone.net Matt Radford

That Trafficmaster app looks very simple – but I did say that simple could be better for satnav. A lot of the visuals are distracting. I’ll contact them and see about a review.

Bob

Trafficmaster does need work in the basic features department (such as POIs and business name search). The unique feature is that it’s got possibly the best traffic monitoring and avoidance behind it and for no fee on the iphone. Living near the M25 that trumps fancy graphics, bells and whistles everytime. If you have that on your phone alongside TomTom or CoPilot let me know which you use most.

http://www.allaboutiphone.net Matt Radford

Bob – I’m just about to get a copy of Trafficmaster, having been in contact with their marketing department. I’ll write up a full review in a couple of weeks.

Daniel

for some reason my copilot has stopped working and is asking me to enter my product key, does anyone know how i can find out what my product key is?

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